Linville Gorge Loop

Day 0

Being located in the southeast has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages being finding scenic hikes once you've experienced western states such as Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana. Being of treeline really changed my life. So, in an attempt to find great views without peaking through tree cover I found a gem of a trip report detailing the Linville Gorge Loop. The majority of the trip reports I read had the hike beginning and ending at the Shortoff Trailhead (which is probably the best option, and I'll get to that later). I decided that I wanted to embrace both the high panoramas as well as the rushing rapids of the Linville River. I set this trip up starting at the Table Rock trailhead. This allowed us to start off with some of the most spectacular 360 degree views I've seen in the southeast and then camp down on the river for the first night. Day 2 was scheduled to take us back up top for some breathtake views from a high campsite. Sounds good on paper right? We all know the adventure doesn't begin until a wrench gets thrown in the plans. This was a great trip, nonetheless.

Our day 0 took us from Huntsville to Knoxville where we stayed for the night to give us a short drive to the trail head to begin day 1.

Day 1

Table Rock Parking Area

Our first day started at the Table Rock Parking area. Our plan for the day was to take a short hike to the top and back of Table Rock mountain. It was about 1.5 mi to the top and back down. A good little warm up to get things started.

Climbing Table Rock Mountain

We couldn't have been more lucky as far as weather goes. The view from the Table Rock summit were spectacular, to say the least. It was all down hill from here as we made our way down into the gorge. These were probably some of the steepest grades I have encountered hiking and I have to say it was a little hard on the knees (am I getting that old?). One switch back after another we came to the most epic river crossing with a bridge I have ever come across. The bridge was narrow and the water was rushing through the gorge with rapids that splashed against the rocks with thunderous claps.

After the crossing we had a small climb out and a hike alongside the river through the gorge bottom. The terrain was extremely rocky and rugged. It was difficult to keep a good pace. At times it was hard to follow the trail; it wasn't marked with blazes, only cairns left by other hikers. Believe it or not, sometimes it's difficult to spot piles of rocks that are stacked on rock slides. We never got too lost, just had to back track a couple times along with some scrambling. It's kind of difficult to get lost when you know the trail follows the river. Very good tool for keeping one's bearings.

Linville Falls

We continued alongside the river, scrambling over rocks across the rugged terrain. We eventually found a great campsite by the river and called it a night. I estimate we went about 6.5-7 mi that first day. Doesn't seem like a lot, but with the rough trails in the gorge, it's difficult to keep a 1mph pace.

Day 2

Day two was riddled with adventure, and well.. riddles. I forgot to mention that we started this trip with 5 people. By the time we made it to camp, we only had 4. By the time we left camp on Day 2, we were down to three. One guy had fallen back on the first day and set up camp about a mile and a half back from the rest of the group. Day 2 was set to be filled with lots of climbing, a 60 yard river crossing, and then a lot more climbing. We new we had a tough day ahead of us and needed to get an early start. Long story short, of the four at camp on night 1, one fellow stayed back to wait on the the lone tortoise to catch back up. I mentioned earlier that the trails were not obviously marked. Given that this is a wilderness area and not a park, that is what I expected. To allow the people following us have an easier day, we built a series of cairns along the way to help outline the path (hopefully that work wasn't all for not and they are still there and people are continuing to add to them :)) The trail was much less rugged as the day started off. We passed the chimneys, below shortoff, and through several campsites a long the way. There were several good campsites we passed on day 1, but the campsites on day 2 seemed to be all right on top of the trail (I'm not a huge fan of that). After a dramatic first climb out of the gorge, Shortoff mountain came into view.

We started to make another drop as we approached the river crossing. It was obvious we were near as the woods started to open up and the terrain level out after the drop. We came up to a dirt road where the trail continued on the other side. We crossed and soon thereafter found ourselves at an enormous campsite.

I knew this was the river, but we wasn't confident this was the spot to cross. From all the trip reports I read prior, I knew that the worst this crossing had been was waste deep. When you looked across the river from the campsite there were two red marks on trees on the opposite side. Once we decided this couldn't be it, we split up going up and down river. The crossing point was just down the trail to the left of the campsite. Off with the shoes and socks and into the water. It was cold. Very cold. About half way across I was numb to the cold and actually enjoyed it.

After the crossing was complete, we took a short break for lunch and dried off our feet. Next up was our climb of shortoff. I decided not to take a gamble on water availability at the top of Shortoff so I took this chance to fill up all my containers. Hindsight, I probably would have been alright to make it to the top, but I would venture to say during the summer months it would be a good idea to go ahead and fill up at this point. The only reliable water source from here on out was a trickle from a pipe at the top of shortoff.

For the most part, this climb was pretty steady and drawn out. The total climb probably took around 30-40 minutes. There was a lot of sun exposure at this point so I had to break out the neck wrap. All the exposure was due to a forest fire around 2008 which made the scenery of the climb look like a war zone. However, it did allow for some spectacular views of Lake James.

We made it to the top of Shortoff right at 3:00. By this time, the campsites were already full. We pressed on hoping to find some campsites and a reliable water source. All we saw was the trickle from the pipe that I mentioned earlier. We ended up bushwacking off trail towards running water at a gap on the way to the chimneys. The site was OK, but it was secluded which was nice.

We followed with an early morning out the next day through the chimneys and back to the table rock parking area. Again, there was no water since the river crossing before short off.

The original trip report I read had the loop starting at Wolfpit and then going towards Table Rock and down into the gorge. Honestly, this is probably the best option due to the lack of water at the top of the Gorge. This way you hike down towards the water to camp. If you plan on camping up high, do yourself a favor and pack extra water with you to the site.

Overall, great trip with some rare views due to the forest fire. A decently strenuous hike, but not overwhelming.